About the Gallery

The Croatian Heritage Museum invites you to a special exhibition featuring the life and work of sculptor Joseph Turkaly (1924-2007) opening February 3 through March 31, 2008. This will be the first showcase of Joseph Turkaly since he passed away in 2007. The exhibit, curated by his family, will showcase the progression of the artist style over his lengthy career, one that has been recognized with numerous awards by art critics, organizations and governments. Many of the works were part of the Joseph’s private collection and have not been viewed before by the public. In addition, the tools that Joseph used and small sketch models will be on display.

Joseph Turkaly started his artistic pursuit at a young age in his native Croatia attending a high school for the fine arts and continuing on to the Fine Arts Academy in Zagreb. His education culminated with a Masters in sculpting from the Academia della Bella Arte in Rome in 1954. He immigrated to the States in 1957 at the invitation of Ivan Mestrovic, world renowned fellow Croatian sculptor, to be his assistant. He worked closely with Mestrovic until his death where upon Joseph took over his position at Notre Dame University in Indiana. He moved to Cleveland after receiving substantial commissions in the area. In 1969, he accepted a teaching position at Gilmour Academy where he initiated the entire art curriculum for the school. He remained there for twenty years. Throughout his teaching career he accepted many large scale public and private commissions and garnered many awards for his freelance work. After retiring, he continued evolving his style and gained new accolades for his fresh approach to his work. Joseph passed away suddenly on July 3, 2007 in Cleveland.

The exhibit will divide his life and work into four distinct periods; Classical Training in Europe (1940- 1956), Creative freedom early in America (1957- 1969), Figurative exploration of American and Croatian Themes (1970- 1988), Contemporary revision of previous themes(1989- 2007). Each period will feature pieces created along with archival photographs and sketches allowing the audience to witness his changing approach to his work. A brief history highlighting each period will also help explain the events that helped shape his career and life in general. The story of the artist weaves into his inspiration and appears in his work.

Some works will be available for purchase along with prints and smaller pieces that have not been released to the public. There will also be a slide show at 3PM the day of the opening covering the many works of Joseph Turkaly’s career.

The museum & library hours are Friday 3-8 PM, Saturday 1-5 PM. Other hours and group tours by appointment. Contact Branka Malinar for further information 440.946.2044 bmalinar@alltel.net